Sociology and Acting
I am on vacation as I am writing this. Today I was at the beach working on my tan, watching people, as I always do. In the distance I see a child playing in the water. I estimated him being about 4 years old. He was walking to the edge of the water and then when a wave came lapping against the shore he would run. He would run away and shriek in thrills of joy. Playing the game of “stay away from the waves”. He was already wet, covered in sand.
As soon as I saw this I remembered playing this game. I remember playing “stay away from the waves”. It was a simple game of tag with the ocean and the ocean was always ready to play, even when I had given up on the game and had moved onto more important things like digging a hole. I thought to myself, why did I stop? Then I asked another question. What is stopping me from doing that again?
People love children because they are innocent. At least that is what I have seen. They love that about kids, yet it is the first thing that people destroy in one another. If I started playing the game of “stay away from the waves” people would look at me with disapproving looks, perhaps a snide comment. Most likely think that I was weird.
What other people think of me is non of my business. It’s a saying I have heard before. It’s important in acting. Criticism intraverts people. It stops them from being in the moment. It prevents them from taking action because “what will people think?” “people don’t like people who behave like that son”. These are some great comments that stop you in your tracks and get you thinking. Which for an actor is deadly. Nothing kills creativity faster than a critic. Approval is a very powerful thing. If an authority figure, a parent, teacher, coach with holds approval you can really feel like an outsider. If a group starts to do, more exclusion. A lot of who we are today is because of society, because of how people treat you. Reflect on your life for a moment. Think of the school heart throb, how was he/she treated? The school jock, the oddball, the shy kid, the artist, the actor, the musician etc. Have you ever been around celebrities? I have, it’s interesting to see how people treat.
So here is an exercise for you to try. Do it anywhere, see what happens. Start treating people differently. Take actions toward them like they are the Queen of England. The next person like they are your little brother. Then next like they are the smartest person in the world. Then do the opposite. Start acting like a star, like a celebrity, like a super talent actor. See what happens. It’s an exercise in character and sociology. Fame is something that is bestowed upon you, start mocking that up. Be the source point for that, get a following and soon you’ll find yourself playing that part in that next blockbuster.